Mark Carter

Optos (LON:OPTS) published its interims on the 16th, sending its share price down 23% on the week. Revenues fell by 15% against comps, and it reported an operating loss before exceptionals. This reflected the inherent difficulty in forecasting growth trajectories and timing of sales during the initial launch of a new product such as Daytona; and lower than expected sales due to macro-economic factors, notably…

Some changes have been made to my BLI Defensive portfolio on Stockopedia. The portfolio did well at inception, but has since shown a lack of inspiration. On a 2-year basis is has handily outperformed the indices, but underperformed over 1 year. Stock-picking genius has failed to be demonstrated on my part. It is a defensive portfolio, mind, so it should not be expected to shoot…

Let’s see what the cat dragged in today, shall we? Some exciting results today, mostly of the positive kind. Interims Fenner (LON:FENR) +3.9% Revenues and PBT down, but dividend increased by 7%, improving order levels in “conveyor solutions” (fancy conveyor belts, to you and me) in North America, pressure in Australia, strong trading elsewhere. Personally, I thought FENR offered a mediocre trading opportunity, but it…

A few interesting things going on today: Interims ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) +7.1% Q1 results have obviously excited the market. RS6m (Rel Str 6 months) is 36%. PE of 54 makes it “a bit heady” in valuation terms, and it seems to be touching a decade-high rating. Revenues were up 28%. Not shabby at all. “ARM has made an encouraging start to 2013 with more leading…

About a week ago, I suggested taking a look at Dixons Retail (LON:DXNS) . It is up over 13% since then, so I am well happy with that. It is up 2.2% today against a backdrop where the ASX is down 1.2%. I take its show of strength in a weak market to be a very good sign. Even better, it has broken channel resistance…

"They still haven't properly explained what the "equity swap" arrangements late last year actually were" Somebody draw me a picture, because, like you, I'm still unclear about the mechanics of it. Also, I think they're being rather coy with the use of the word "counterparty". What is the general nature of the counterparty? A hedge fund, investment bank, a related-party transaction, something different entriely, what?…

Aero, there's a twist to the tale on O'Shaughnessy that Greenblatt has talked about. It is true that he set up a fund to follow his own method, which subsequently did disastrously. O'Shaughnessy then sold his fund, which ironically turned out to be a turning point, and the fund performed strongly again. Greenblatt used this as a warning that oftentimes mechanical strategies can work badly,…

I'd like to emphasise that I came across this share in passing, and that I'm not claiming it as a buy candidate. I just thought it looked interesting, and something you might like to investigate further.

Just to clarify my thoughts on HIBU: it has little in the way of realisable assets. It has crushing debt, but postiive operational cashflow. I see the most likely scenario as being that HIBU will continue trading, at least in the short term, but with current equity holders actually, or effectively, wiped out in a debt-for-equity swap.

Many thanks for your thoughtful reply.